Elasioi

In Greek mythology, the Elasioi (Ancient Greek: Ἐλάσιοι, meaning 'Averters' or 'Expellers'; in Latin, 'Elasii') were minor personages with power to avert epileptic attacks.[1] In the case of someone suffering an epileptic episode in progress, they were sometimes said to cure the ailment by banishing it into the bodies of wild goats.[2]

Yet, their role in society beyond the former remains unclear. Most seem to regard them as divinities of healing; some conflate them with an Argive incarnation of The Dioskouroi[3] (which implies that there are only two, and that both are male), though other sources claim they are female [4] (without regard for their number), and some seem to imply that they were simply mortal magicians or wizards [2] (and takes no regard of either specific number or gender).

Either way, the Elasioi were said to be children[3] or descendants[5] of the heroine Alexida, daughter of the deified Amphiaraus.

References

  1. ↑ Plutarch (author); Goodwin, William W. (trans.) (1906). Essays & Miscellanies... p. 276.
  2. 1 2 Owsei Temkin (author) (1945). The Falling Sickness: A History of Epilepsy from the Greeks to the Beginnings of Modern Neurology. p. 18.
  3. 1 2 Plutarch (author); Halliday, W.R. (trans.) (1928). The Greek Questions of Plutarch. p. 118.
  4. ↑ G. Rodney Avant (author) (2005). A Mythological Reference. p. 248.
  5. ↑ William Smith (editor) (1880). A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Volume 1. p. 128.
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